Career

Another Tech-Free Retreat

September 12, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

I can’t tell you how much I missed doing a tech-free retreat this summer. I had plenty of time off this summer—I always do—but I had not done a real tech-free retreat until last week. For those of you who know me, you know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t know me, I have been doing tech-free retreats since 2016, inspired by Richard Leider’s book, Repacking Your Bags.

This is a day (preferably a full day 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) where I turn off my cell phone and do not check social media while I read, plan, think, meditate, and “retreat.”

For a number of years I used a friend’s office space downtown Waterville along the Kennebec River, but she sold it last year and I have been struggling to find a new place. I used the local library and coffee shops in the past but always wanted to find a cabin or camp on one of the lakes nearby. Well, I found one.

I spent Last Friday at a friend’s camp on Messalonskee Lake here in Central Maine. The weather was fabulous (although that is not a prerequisite), and I spent the morning on the camp deck looking over the lake. I watched a loon swim by and a fish jump as I began writing in my journal. The peacefulness of the day was helpful in slowing me down.

There is something special about these retreats. They take me away from jumping between tasks and wondering how I am going to get to the third task on my list. This day was about slowing down. After writing and thinking for awhile, I picked up a book recommended by a friend, The Earned Life by Marshall Goldsmith, and began my journey into his thoughts on what is important.

After a short break for a morning meal and coffee, I returned to the deck for more reading and writing on my retreat.

I forced myself to stop and look at the water and forest around me, thinking of my mother who loved our camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which looked similar to this camp. Mom could sit for hours and enjoy the moment. But I was always looking for things to do and struggled with sitting quietly and thinking. Not anymore. Now I relish the moments; but it took practice.

My day started with walking meditation which helps me focus and slow down. Most days, I take a mid-afternoon meditation break which helps me re-energize myself and refocus myself for the remainder of the day. This day was no different.

After taking some time to just reflect, I took out my editorial calendar and began planning my next 90 days. Turns out, I planned nearly six months of weekly emails and made numerous decisions about the kind of content I want to share with my followers. What a relief to get so much planned!

Journaling on my retreat — Selfie of me journaling on my retreat.

I know you are busy. We all are. But I encourage you to find time to slow down. Take a half day to turn off technology and let your brain think instead of react. Here is my blog from a couple of years ago, Tech Free Retreat and the Benefits of Turning Off the Tsunami of Information. If you try a retreat, please let me know how it goes.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

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Finding balance in my life

May 9, 2022 by Jim Peacock 4 Comments

One of my three guiding words in 2022 is “balance.” But what does that mean?

Do you have to give up something or rearrange something in order to increase time spent on something else?

Does it mean that every day is balanced the same?

Does it mean you prioritize one thing over another?

For me, balance is an awareness. An awareness that we have choices each day with where we spend our time and energy. The past year I have been thinking about what I love to do at work (live workshops) and where I have the least amount of energy. Surprisingly for me, as I explored this, I ultimately ended up taking individual career coaching off my website so I could focus more on trainings. I still do some career coaching but I wanted to shift that balance.

Guess what happened? I started getting requests to do more workshops. Yep. Two different state career associations, a state community college system, a college out west, a college in Boston, a medical company who wants to focus on retention, all contacted me this year…amazingly soon after I took career coaching off my website.

My challenge to you. Remember that you have choices, priorities, and tasks that you have some control over. “Where focus goes, energy flows,” was advice my business coach gave me and it’s true. Decide on your balance points, send the message to the “universe,” and you might be surprised what happens next. I have been pleasantly surprised.

Most of us need and/or want to work and all of us have lives outside of work. One thing I have always done is use all my vacation time each year. I even negotiated for additional vacation time in one position (and got it). Time away from work has always been important to me and I found that being refreshed made me a better worker.

Oftentimes one week was not enough to really re-energize and when I could, I tried to take more time off. We are complicated animals, we humans, and we need to be active. We also need a mix of activites so our brains can rest in different ways.

My challenge to you. Have you taken all your vacation time this year or do you at least have it planned? If not, consider ways you can use those hours/days to relax and reinvigorate yourself.

I also try to find balance within each day. I set an alarm for 45 minutes so that I remind myself to get up and move around. I try to take a 15-minute meditation break around 2:30pm each afternoon, and I am always surprised how much more energy I have when I return to work. Most days I take a walk either in the morning or after lunch. The other “balance” strategy I use is not opening emails throughout the day. I try to bunch them up so that I have time to finish projects and to just “think” through things a little better. Balancing my day and balancing my weeks are both strategies I try to be aware of.

My challenge to you. Make sure you are doing something to take control of your day and not always with your “pedal to the metal” with no time for yourself.

Because “balance” is one of my guiding words for the year, I write it down in my journal every time I write. This nudges me to think about how that word can fit into my day. I am constantly thinking about ways to keep me from working so many hours each week. I know I am at a different time in my career than many of you, and I put many hours into Peak-Careers when I started, but now I am thinking about how to manage my time better and to work closer to a 35 hour week…or less.

There are some weeks I still work 40+ hours, but by thinking about balancing my life, being aware of it, and considering how to balance work-life, I am always trying to keep my priorities straight. Is there a way for me to stop work a little early? Can this project or 25 unread emails wait until tomorrow so that I can spend time with my family? Balance is awareness.

My challenge to you. Think about your work-life balance, be aware of other people in your life that you want to spend time with, and your own personal mental health time.

I want to share with you this poem, “The Valuable Time of Maturity” by Mário de Andrade that really resonated with me.

” I counted my years and discovered that I have
less time to live going forward than I have lived until now.

I have more past than future.
I feel like the boy who received a bowl of candies.
The first ones, he ate ungracious,
but when he realized there were only a few left,
he began to taste them deeply.

I do not have time to deal with mediocrity.
I do not want to be in meetings where parade inflamed egos.

I am bothered by the envious, who seek to discredit
the most able, to usurp their places,
coveting their seats, talent, achievements and luck.

I do not have time for endless conversations,
useless to discuss about the lives of others
who are not part of mine.

I do not have time to manage sensitivities of people
who despite their chronological age, are immature.

I cannot stand the result that generates
from those struggling for power.

People do not discuss content, only the labels.
My time has become scarce to discuss labels,
I want the essence, my soul is in a hurry…
Not many candies in the bowl…

I want to live close to human people,
very human, who laugh of their own stumbles,
and away from those turned smug and overconfident
with their triumphs,
away from those filled with self-importance,
Who does not run away from their responsibilities ..
Who defends human dignity.
And who only want to walk on the side of truth
and honesty.
The essential is what makes
life worthwhile.

I want to surround myself with people,
who knows how to touch the hearts of people ….
People to whom the hard knocks of life,
taught them to grow with softness in their soul.

Yes …. I am in a hurry … to live with intensity,
that only maturity can bring.
I intend not to waste any part of the goodies
I have left …
I’m sure they will be more exquisite,
that most of which so far I’ve eaten.

My goal is to arrive to the end satisfied and in peace
with my loved ones and my conscience.
I hope that your goal is the same,
because either way you will get there too .. “

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-valuable-time-of-maturity/

What Brings You Joy?

April 11, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

One of my three words to guide me in 2022 is positivity. I thought about using “humor” or “laughter” but ended up on the word positivity because it is a word I can connect with daily. It is broader than laughter and I can look for ways to simply be more positive in my daily life and to find joy in my life. (Read more about my words)

The impact of the pandemic over the past two years has permeated my life in so many ways. I feel more fatigued and I truly miss human contact. Before March 2020 I could attend in-person conferences and live concerts with hundreds of people without giving it a thought. Now I have to think about whether it is worth taking the risk… Staying positive has been more challenging than it had been before the pandemic.

So how do I work on positivity?
How do I find joy?

Here are a few things I do to help me look at the brighter side of life. Some are subtle and small, others make me smile just thinking about them.

Walking every morning. Some mornings my wife joins me to start our day. On other days I plug into a walking meditation app and begin my day focusing on the here and now. I pay attention to the birds singing, the wind blowing, the feel of my feet on the ground, my legs, my torso, my arms, and my head. All things to be present and in the moment. It slows me down, centers me, and makes me happy.

Journaling. Most days I start by writing down my thoughts and emotions in a journal. First, I write down my three words for 2022 to keep them in front of me and will sometimes note what a word makes me think of in that moment. Then I write whatever is on my mind. Sometimes it is work-related. Other times it’s personal. But the act of writing down these thoughts helps me “look at them” and it makes me feel better just knowing what they are and how important they are to me.

Thank you notes bring me joy. My three-month calendar is lined with thank you notes. Recently, I received one of the nicest thank you emails and decided to put it into my Google calendar so that it pops up once a month and I can reread it. It makes me feel SO GOOD—I can’t tell you how much. Then I got another one. So now on the 4th Tuesday of every month my calendar “pops up” a reminder at 5:00 pm titled “comments to make me happy.” Most of the time I have forgotten about it and I reread the thank you notes and it makes me smile.

Reading about happiness. I’ve loved Greater Good Magazine ever since I took an online class on happiness through the organization years ago. The class was one of the best I ever took and the regular emails/newsletters I get are wonderful. Here is an article that came out recently about doctors who prescribe happiness to their patients. I love it! As the article states, sometimes writing a thank you note is all we need to make us feel better. I had some Peak-Careers notes made up at the local print shop to have on hand whenever I wanted to send a thank you.

What do you do to make yourself feel
happier, more positive, or bring you joy?

Why My Career Community Is So Important to Me

March 7, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Each year I choose three words to guide me, and one of mine this year is “community.” (Read all three and what they mean to me). The word “community” has multiple layers in its meaning to me, and as we come out of Covid my need to be a part of a community has probably never been stronger. I think about my hockey community which consists of about 8 or 9 guys who all love to play hockey outdoors here in Maine. And a high school friend and college roommate and his brothers who are all in a fantasy hockey league together.

Other personal communities include my backpacking buddies, my fishing buddies, and my family who are spread out across the country and stay connected via zoom for most of the year. All are important people in my world who add value to my life.

The other important community for me is that of the career professionals that I know. I have always been professionally involved, from my student activity days (1981-84) to my school counselor days (1990’s), and for the past 25+ years in the career development profession.

Often when I think of my career community, I think about things like:

What can I do to improve others?
Who are my “go to” people I can learn from?
Is there a role I could fill in my career development professional associations?
What else can I learn to better understand career issues?

As I think about what I can do to help improve others in my field, I think about my weekly career emails, or sharing great content I discover online, or writing articles, and more. I get great satisfaction from doing this and love it when I hear from others that whatever I shared, somehow connected or resonated with them.

CHALLENGE: What can you do to help improve our career community?

My “go to” people are many in this field and I see each one of them adding value in my life professionally and often personally. My “go to” people include: Hannah Morgan a.k.a. Career Sherpa who has nudged me to do more videos including a LinkedIn Live recently, Bob McIntosh who inspires me to write more, Barry Davis who shares my love for reading, and Sabrina Woods who has helped me realize the power of mindfulness and importance of slowing down. Others like Mark Danaher have helped me see the importance of sharing content with others with no expectation of getting anything back. (But the universe remembers). Thank you each for being such an important part of my community. There are many more and I hope you know who you are.

CHALLENGE: Who are your “go to” people?

I am finishing up my 6-year term (actually two 3-year terms) for National Career Development Association (NCDA) on the Training & Education Council in September. This has been a wonderful experience where I have learned more about NCDA, met people from all over the country, and have made a positive difference in the training programs we oversee. For many years I have been involved with the Maine Career Development Association and still keep a “finger” in the association, although not in an official role. I am not sure what I will do next but I am sure I will find something to keep me engaged in the career development profession.

CHALLENGE: What do you do, or could you do, for our profession?

Libraries mesmerize me. I still remember the Seattle Public Library years ago when I first walked through it. All these books and so much to learn. I feel much the same way in our profession, there is so much to learn about helping people with their career decisions. What don’t I know?

Well there is plenty I don’t know and I am always looking for ways to continue my learning which is why I read daily, listen to podcasts, attend conferences and webinars, and network. I feel like each person I meet is a person who can help me learn a different tool or perspective that I hadn’t known before.

CHALLENGE: What do you do to improve your own skills?

My career community helps me in each of these “challenges” and I hope you find value in your own career community.

How I Choose My Three Words for 2022.

February 7, 2022 by Jim Peacock 2 Comments

A “Hat Tip” to Dick Knowdell and His Values Card Sorts.

Each month I look ahead to find a day I can take a tech-free retreat. I don’t always find one, but most of the time I do. This practice was inspired by Richard Leider in his book Repacking Your Bags.

I have written about my retreats before, but today I want to explain how I used one of my retreats to choose my three words for 2022. If you want to read about my retreats, check out these blogs. (Read)

This past December I had scheduled a tech-free retreat for December 22 when I would read, write, reflect, meditate, and hopefully choose my three words to guide me in 2022. I had one word that I knew I wanted. Balance. I have been looking at how to reduce the number of hours I work, maintain my business, and spend more time with my recently retired wife, my friends, and family.

My retreat is a time when I typically review my journal from the past year, looking for themes that might inspire me to discover my words for the upcoming year. It’s a bit of the “intentional serendipity” that I believe in—taking action and being open to discovering something by accident.

Then I received an email from Rich Feller letting me know that Dick Knowdell had passed away. Before I became familiar with Dick Knowdell’s work, I had used the Missouri occupational card sorts a bit. But when I was introduced to his Motivated Card sorts I was hooked. It was then that I added his values card sorts to my repertoire and created my favorite workshop called “The Magic of Card Sorts.” Dick was a large force in the career development field, always giving his time, expertise, and sharing his knowledge wherever he went…with a smile.

I decided to bring my values card sort with me on my retreat to see what might emerge for my words and also as a “hat tip” to Dick.

The first step in the card sort is laying out the header cards: Always Valued, Often Valued, Sometimes Valued, Seldom Valued, and Never Valued. Then placing the cards, one by one, into the column that made the most sense to me at that moment. Values can change over time and I was interested in seeing what may have changed since I did this values card sort years ago. Clearly my head was in a different space now as a 65-year-old and all that life has brought to me.

As I picked up each card and read the value on it, I processed what that word means to me and how it fits into the context of my life today, at work and at home. Placing it under a heading gives value to that word and its meaning to me. There is something subliminal happening as well as cognitively. I don’t completely understand it, but I do know it happens. As I looked at my values spread out on the table in front of me, I felt like it truly represented a bit of who I am and what is important to me.

But I still could not “see” a theme. So I decided to do another sort; one that I do with the Motivated Skills Cards but had never done with the values. I took the top cards from Always and Often Valued and sorted them into groups or themes that make sense to me.

That was when the magic happened.

It was here that I could see the importance of creativity and knowledge in my work, and I knew that I still wanted to keep working. I simply love what I am doing. (see the two groups at far left). The far right group starting with “practicality” also fits into my work life well as I love the independence of owning my own business.

Much of my motivation comes out in the middle column headed by the words “affiliation” and “community.”

Yes, I love my work and what I do.

But why? And as I thought about it, the knowledge, the creativity, the helping others, all felt like actual people to me. People I wanted to share knowledge with. People I wanted to help. And that is where the word “COMMUNITY” came from for one of my three guiding words.

Clearly that second column from the left, headed by family and friends, supported my first word of BALANCE.

But what would my third word be?

The words, “Fun” and “Humor” stuck out to me. What is it that I want to do with my family and friends…and with my work colleagues and network? Yes, to share what I know, but also to do it in a way that is fun, uplifting, creative, and practical. But it has to be in a fun way, a positive way. Something good to do each day and that adds value to my community. I thought about using the words humor or fun, and then realized that it had more to do with being optimistic or positive. And there it was, POSITIVITY.

What I like about my three words each year is that there often is an intersection between them. When I journal, I always begin with writing down my three words: Balance, Community, Positivity. I change the order and sometimes will create designs using them, but I always write them. When I do, it forces me to think about that word and how it might fit into my day.

Sometimes “community” means my professional network, e.g. doing a LinkedIn Live session or participating in my National Career Development Association volunteer work. Sometimes “community” is my family or my hockey buddies.

Balance is always challenging me to make sure that every day I play, workout, read, meditate, and do the work I love.

Positivity makes me smile and I think about what I could do today that will make a positive influence on me. I found a TedTalk playlist called “10 days of positive thinking.” It is a great list and I encourage you, to check them out.

If you have not stopped to look at your values recently, I encourage you to do so. What is important to you today and how will you manifest it?

And if you have any good ideas on how I can continue to build my positivity…I’m all ears. I know that my community supports me.

Read about My Three Words in 2022
◊ Balance ◊Community ◊Positivity ◊

My Three Guiding Words in 2022

January 3, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took my “tech-free retreat” which I try to fit in monthly. My focus was on choosing my three guiding words for the upcoming year. December’s retreat was scheduled on a day that turned out to be our first real snowstorm of the year. Hence, it became a half-day retreat, not my typical full day one. I’ve lost access to an office I was using for my retreats, so I spent the morning at Selah Tea Cafe downtown Waterville where I worked on my three words for 2022.

I had planned to move to my other favorite coffee shop, Jorgenson’s Cafe, at noon, but they closed early. My next back up plan was to hang out in the Waterville Public Library on the 3rd floor which has a wonderful room with lots of windows looking over downtown Waterville…but alas, they closed due to the storm as well.

All was not lost as I still did lots of thinking and writing, and came up with my three guiding words for the year.

First off, let me share my words from past years. Each word still resonates with me at some level. They were important to me then and still are now as a clue to who I am and who I want to be.

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

Here are my three guiding words for 2022 and a little of the reasoning behind each one.

Balance

In 2020 I used “rebalance” which is similar, but as I looked ahead to 2022 and reflected back on 2021, I kept coming back to the guiding word of “balance.” A few years ago I was trying to rebalance, to make a bigger change. Now looking at this word the meaning feels more like balancing with smaller more permanent changes.

Like a few years ago, I am still interested in reducing the actual number of hours I spend working each week. My wife retired this past year and I am trying hard to spend more time with her. We have already gone to a number of matinees during the week, and occasionally taken some time off “just to hang out.” I want to explore this balance more in the upcoming year while continuing to add value in the career field.

Positivity

Ted Lasso inspired me on this one. Special thanks to my backpacking buddy, Howard who turned me on to the Ted Lasso show in September. I came home from our backpacking trip in Vermont and my wife and I watched both seasons this fall.

Ted Lasso is positive, unassuming, funny, and has a HUGE heart. Each episode had me laughing, crying, and often surprised at what happened.

Humor has always been a big part of my life. I want to BE a positive influence on others and I want to be as upbeat as I can every day. Life is too short to be any other way and the past couple of years have been difficult daily to navigate…sometimes I just have to stop reading articles and move on.

Community

As I think back to what I loved working on this past year, I found myself reflecting on the many zoom calls with people in the career field, many of who were thinking about going into private practice or exploring their own career development related to our field. I really want to continue to help other career practitioners and love the idea of figuring out where I want to spend my time in the career community.

I am also looking at my local community here in Central Maine to figure out where I might spend some time and energy. Of course, I also have a community of family, cousins, and friends that I want to continue to nurture.

In February I will share the process I used in choosing these three guiding words. Yes, it happened mostly on my retreat, but this year I did something a little different. I will also write more about what each word means to me in the coming months.

Have you chosen three guiding words for 2022?

If so, what are they and what do they mean to you?

Read how I choose my words this year.